Category: Novosibirsk State University

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

The Russian Ministry of Science and Higher Education has published the results of the selection process for the V. A. Tumanov scholarship, one of the most prestigious for young researchers in the legal field. This year, only 10 spots were available across Russia, and four of them were awarded to graduate students from the Institute of Philosophy and Law of Novosibirsk State University: Yusub Ozmanyan, Timofey Gorbunov, Diana Chashtanova, and Vladislav Cherenkov.

The graduate students note that achieving their goals required careful preparation. All applications were processed through the NSU Career Development Center (CDC), which assisted students in preparing their application package and forwarded it to the selection committee.

"Completing the application is a very important step that requires concentration," notes Diana Chashtanova, emphasizing the CRC's contribution. According to her, the competition took into account academic performance, scientific publications, grants, conference wins, and other achievements.

The winners' research topics cover a wide range of legal issues, from the transformation of social partnerships in the context of digitalization to the analysis of unfair practices in the provision of legal services and compulsory licensing mechanisms in intellectual property.

"The topic of my PhD dissertation is 'Transformation of the Principles of Social Partnership in the Sphere of Labor in the Era of the Development of the Information Society.' The research aims to develop the conceptual foundations for the legal regulation of social partnership in the sphere of labor in the new socioeconomic conditions. This is primarily a fundamental study, the goal of which is to update the theoretical and legal framework in this area by establishing both universal and individual social and labor standards that reflect existing trends and enhance the level of labor rights and social protection for workers at all levels of social partnership," explains Diana Chashtanova.

"The topic of my PhD thesis is 'The Mechanism of Compulsory Licensing in Intellectual Property Law in the Russian Federation.' For example, among the functions of compulsory licensing, one can highlight the socioeconomic function, which is expressed in the fact that the use of a compulsory license can compensate for the shortage of relevant goods and services in the market, leading to increased availability of socially significant goods (increased quantity, reduced price). At the very least, this demonstrates the practical significance of my research," explains Yusub Ozmanyan.

"The topic of my postgraduate research was 'Abuse of Faith in Legal Services: Criminological Analysis and Countermeasures.' The practical significance of the research lies in identifying the causes of criminal behavior by lawyers when providing legal services, as well as in analyzing mechanisms for preventing such behavior. I was very happy when I learned I had been awarded the scholarship," shares Timofey Gorbunov.

For graduate students, receiving the scholarship was an important outcome of the year.

"This is a real New Year's gift, and I am grateful to my supervisor, Ekaterina Rodionovna Voronkova, and the institute for their support," shares Diana Chashtanova.

"This wasn't my first time participating in the competition, and I set a goal to definitely win. My joy knows no bounds," concludes Yusub Ozmanyan.

NSU traditionally confirms its position as one of the country's strongest universities in the field of legal research—and the results of the V. A. Tumanov scholarship competition are further proof of this.

The material was prepared by: Yulia Dankova, NSU press service

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

Master's student Faculty of Information Technology Daniil Lyutaev, a researcher at NSU's Faculty of Information Technologies (FIT), under the supervision of Vladimir Borisovich Barakhnin, Doctor of Engineering Sciences and Professor in the Department of Informatics Systems at FIT NSU, developed an algorithm that automates the process of cross-lingual transfer of named entity markup (titles, names, dates, etc.) using large language models. This method will find application in many areas, including the creation of national search engines, document classification, the construction of communication networks, translation, and other fields.

Named entity recognition (i.e., words and phrases that denote unique or singular objects, such as people, organizations, locations, dates, and others) is a key task in natural language processing, the solution of which depends on the availability of high-quality annotated text corpora. Creating such corpora for new languages, especially those with insufficient digital data for processing and analysis, is resource-intensive, making the automatic cross-lingual transfer of existing annotation a pressing issue. In his paper, Daniil Lyutaev explores the effectiveness of an approach based on large language models (LLMs) to automate the process of annotation transfer from Uzbek to Russian and English.

Initially, the researcher had a large dataset of sentences (approximately 10,000) in Uzbek, in which experts had manually annotated the named entities. The document consisted of a table in which each word had a specific tag next to it, similar to HTML markup language, indicating whether the word was part of a named entity or not. The researcher's task was to automatically transcribe these sentences into another language while preserving the annotation.

"This allows us to scale labeled data to new languages without repeating the work. The labeling is done once and then transferred automatically multiple times," explains Daniil.

The master's student relied on two traditional approaches: sentence and entity translation using a translator and algorithmic matching; and sentence translation using a translator and named entity extraction without regard to the original annotation using pre-trained models. He also proposed his own approach, using large language models—in this case, GPT-4o. For each sentence, a task was formulated in a specific format with example responses. All three methods were compared using standard metrics such as precision, recall, and F1-score (the harmonic mean of the first two parameters) on 30 Russian and 30 English sentences, all manually annotated (the original language was Uzbek).

As a result, it was found that the markup can be transferred with high accuracy (F1 score ~ 0.9) even when working with morphologically different language types: Uzbek is an agglutinative language, Russian is an inflectional language, and English is an isolating language. In particular, when creating multilingual information systems, initial markup can be performed in only one language—for example, the one that requires the lowest cost.

"The goal of our work was to demonstrate that LLM can be used to solve this problem efficiently and automatically generate markup in another language. The results of the markup transfer algorithm can already be applied in many areas—search engines, document classification, building relational networks, translation, as well as for named entity extraction models themselves, where sets of marked data are needed," says Daniil.

To confirm the results, an automated back-translation evaluation was additionally conducted. This involved translating the original Uzbek sentence into a target language, such as Russian, then taking the resulting Russian sentence and translating it back into Uzbek. This back-translation was then compared with the original for semantic similarity. This evaluation is automated for any number of sentences. The second evaluation compares the semantic similarity in the target language of the application's output and a reference sentence, additionally annotated manually. The study shows that these two evaluations correlate for 30 manually annotated sentences in Russian and English.

The developed approach could contribute to achieving information sovereignty and the creation of national search engines. Besides Google, which now has virtually worldwide reach, only Russia (Yandex) and China (Baidu) have their own fully-fledged national search engines. However, there are significant populations around the world who speak Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, and German. However, these countries lack sovereign search engines.

"Existing search engines don't disclose the algorithms they use, yet they possess vast resources that are inaccessible to most countries. Our goal is to develop a system that can be replicated. Scientific knowledge is reproducible and publicly available, and our algorithms are part of science and technology. Furthermore, they are relatively simple and inexpensive to implement. Therefore, we make what Google does truly accessible. This also contributes to resolving the issue of national sovereignty in information technology, which is extremely important. The algorithm we developed will help develop national segments of the internet in countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States, such as Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan," explains Vladimir Barakhnin.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

On December 1, two open lectures were held at Novosibirsk State University, organized by Italian Center of NSUThey were dedicated to medieval culture and the origins of the Italian literary tradition. The topics were Francis of Assisi's "Song to Brother Sun" and Umberto Eco's interpretation of the Middle Ages in his novel "The Name of the Rose."

The first lecture was given by Stefano Invernizzi, deputy director of a Catholic school in Novosibirsk. He introduced Francis of Assisi and spoke about the hymn he composed, which celebrates its 800th anniversary this year.

The lecturer emphasized that Francis's anniversary once again brings attention to the origins of Italian culture:

"We started talking about Saint Francis—this year marks the 800th anniversary of his "Canticle to Brother Sun." This is an opportunity to revisit the history of the Italian language, as this text is one of the first products of Italian culture. On such days, lectures like these are especially important.

A significant part of the speech was devoted to the analysis of the “Song to Brother Sun” – the first poetic text in the Umbrian vernacular:

"This is, first and foremost, a prayerful hymn. Note: this is truly a literary text. Why? Because we see that the author, Francis of Assisi, consciously used the grammatical resources at his disposal. Moreover, Francis draws on his predecessors—biblical ones, of course, the prophets and the psalms."

The expert spoke in detail about the context of Francis's life, his spiritual conversion, political conflicts in Medieval Italy, and the role of the Order of Friars Minor. The lecturer specifically noted that the hymn's key message is connected to love for all living things and brotherhood with nature and animals: "This is the most important message for the 'Song': If God is one Father, then all people are brothers and sisters. Just like all living beings."

The second lecture was given by Lyudmila Budneva, senior lecturer Humanities Institute of NSUThe lecture was dedicated to Umberto Eco's novel "The Name of the Rose." The lecturer described the book as a multilayered work that reveals the intellectual debates of the Middle Ages—about the nature of truth, the role of knowledge, the permissibility of laughter, and the mechanisms of power.

Lyudmila Viktorovna emphasized that Eco portrays the Middle Ages as an era of contradictions, where dogmas and living human thought clashed:

We're talking about the 14th century. Umberto Eco opens before us a veritable encyclopedia of a medieval monastery. In this case, it's a Benedictine monastery—the oldest Christian order. We learn about the way of life and customs, the rules of conduct. But any rules are embodied by living people. The novel is precisely about how any rules, elevated to absolutes for the sake of stability and so that we know where we're going, must be immutable. They shouldn't change from century to century, because Christ is one and His word is one. But life shows that all these rules, like life itself, are made by people. The main debate in the novel is about people and rules.

The lecturer elaborated on the key opposition of the work – laughter and fear, embodied in the images of the novel’s heroes, William of Baskerville and Jorge:

— Laughter is the path to truth… it is what softens the spirit, makes us kinder, but at the same time it also enlightens the spirit.

Lyudmila Viktorovna also emphasized that the novel touches on fear as a tool of control:

"So, according to the novel, people fear a man-made fear, one that comes from the medieval church and the educated world. This is frightening because knowledge, concentrated in a few hands, weakens the world."

The lecture concluded with a discussion of the symbolic significance of the destruction of the monastery library:

Gradually, cities grow—and life takes over. At the end of the novel, the monastery and its library are destroyed by fire, but the world continues to exist. Although we have lost a vast treasure trove of knowledge, including Aristotle's Poetics, the monastery's destruction demonstrates the triumph of change. The Middle Ages cannot be perceived as something static and unchanging.

Both lectures demonstrated to the audience how multilayered and vibrant the Middle Ages appears when examining its original texts. Through the hymn of Francis of Assisi and the novel by Umberto Eco, the audience saw how early literary forms and spiritual debates of the 13th and 14th centuries shaped the language, worldview, and conceptions of knowledge that continue to influence European culture to this day. These two perspectives—from within medieval spirituality and through the prism of modern humanities thought—allowed a new appreciation of the role of the Middle Ages as an era in which key ideas emerged that shaped the subsequent development of literature, philosophy, and society.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

From November 26 to 30, the third International Student Mathematics Olympiad (RUDN Math Olymp) for undergraduate students was held at the Patrice Lumumba Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. 790 students from 16 countries—from India, Spain, and Russia to Uzbekistan and Algeria—participated in the Olympiad. They represented more than 70 universities, including RUDN University, Moscow State University, Moscow State Technical University, Higher School of Economics, Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, and Novosibirsk State University. Of these, 400 students from 38 universities in Russia and neighboring countries competed in person in Moscow.

During the Olympiad, participants solved problems in algebra, geometry, mathematical analysis, and other areas. This is a unique opportunity for students to showcase their talent, share experiences, and enter the world of science.

Following the Olympiad, NSU students received the following awards in the individual competition:

Timofey Vasiliev (Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics) – 1st degree diploma.

Denis Devyatov (Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics) – 1st degree diploma.

Valery Pyatkin (Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics) – 1st degree diploma.

Vadim Fedotov (Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics) – 2nd degree diploma.

In the team ranking and team round, NSU students took second place, beating out Moscow State University, Moscow State Technical University, and Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology. The team was trained by its coaches, Anatoly Ruban and Danila Belousov.

Denis Devyatov, a second-year student at the Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics at NSU, participated for the first time in such a large mathematics Olympiad, where teams from the best universities in Russia and other countries compete.

"The problems in the individual round were interesting, some of them were about differential equations, which surprised me, and they were quite challenging, since I only started studying this topic recently. Only after the Olympiad did they explain to me that this university (RUDN University – author's note) really likes differential equations, so these kinds of problems are often encountered there every year," says Denis Devyatov.

In the team round, NSU students reached the finals—this was the first time that the NSU team reached the final stage, where they competed with teams from the Higher School of Economics and Moscow Institute of Radio Engineering and Electronics (MIREA).

"This is my first time participating in an Olympiad like this, and almost all of my teammates haven't found the right strategy right away, which is why we finished second. However, it was a valuable experience; now we know how it all works, and I'm sure next year's finals will be more interesting," Denis adds.

The Olympics program also included a rich cultural program. For example, the children visited the Moskvarium, where they were able to see a killer whale.

"This trip also gave me the opportunity to see my relatives, particularly my sister, whom I hadn't seen for several years. So, the incentive to attend this Olympiad isn't just for the competitive aspect," Denis shares his impressions.

The NSU delegation thanks the RUDN University organizing team for the opportunity to participate in such a large-scale event, and especially Alexander Kirilenko and Daria Apushkinskaya for their support during the Olympiad and appeal.

For those interested in joining the NSU Mathematics Olympiad team, classes are held weekly. This semester, they are held on Wednesdays at 4:20 PM in Room 2240 of the NSU Academic Building (1 Pirogova Street). The next class will be held on December 10th.

Material prepared by: Varvara Frolkina, NSU press service

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

NSU teams took part in the first Novosibirsk Region Higher Education Institutions Cup in 3×3 Phygital Basketball. This dual event is a new sport that combines real basketball (3×3 streetball) and eSports in a video game format. The competition consists of two stages: first, teams play a match in a simulator, then move on to a real court. The overall score is determined by the points scored in both stages, testing both the athletes' physical skills and their knowledge of the mechanics and tactics of the game.

The girls' team showed excellent results and climbed to second place on the podium!

Compound:

Daria Gogoleva, FENKarina Surikova, MMFanastasia Nizovtseva, EF

The NSU boys' team took 7th place.

Compound:

Roman Grasmik, MMF Anton Badazhkov, FF Maxim Vylegzhanin, FIT

Dmitry Shumeiko, a teacher from the Department of Physical Education, works with the teams.

Congratulations to our girls on winning silver medals at the University Cup!

Phygital sports are gaining popularity! NSU is keeping up with modern trends.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

The next stage of the Novosibirsk Region Archery Cup was held, in which six archers from the Arkadem club, including four NSU students, took part in the classic bow discipline.

Our students showed good results and achieved the following sports categories:

Fedor Ostanin (FF) – first category

Anna Shatrova (FIT) – second category

Victoria Michurina (GGF) – third category

Congratulations to the guys and coaches! We wish them continued success!

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

From December 5 to 7 at Novosibirsk State University (NSU) The 17th Novosibirsk Tournament of Young Chemists was heldTwenty-three teams from our region participated in the tournament selection, with the top 15 teams from Novosibirsk, Berdsk, Krasnoobsk, and Chany receiving invitations to the in-person stage of the tournament.

The tournament format consists of a series of battles pitting three or four teams against each other. One team presents a problem they've been working on for the past three months. The second and third teams take on the roles of opponent and reviewer, evaluating the completeness of the solution, its feasibility, and the presenter's ability to convey their idea to the audience.

This year, the tournament jury included two doctors and seven candidates of science, research fellows from six research institutes of the Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and postgraduate students from Novosibirsk State University.

Elena Stolyarova, the tournament team coordinator, noted that some teams participate in the tournament annually from grades 8 and 9 until graduation, and the organizers have the opportunity to observe the development of their scientific combat skills, which is especially gratifying.

"This year, the tournament's teams are noticeably younger, with many 8th- and 9th-grade students capable of representing their schools with distinction. When participants can pleasantly surprise the judges at such a young age, it's thrilling for us as the organizers to imagine the pleasure we'll get from watching these young people's tournament careers in the coming years," commented Elena Stolyarova.

The tournament included four scientific battles, which determined the top three teams and recognized outstanding players.

The four teams that advanced to the tournament finals presented their best solutions. The "Pyrotechnics" team from MAOU "Gymnasium No. 1" chose to present a "Catalytically Perfect Problem" about the enzyme catalase, found in food products, at the finals. The team placed third. Specialized Scientific Center of Novosibirsk State University "Vivere est cogitare" (We Live Together) was a challenge to create our own liquid polarity scale. The "THF" team from the Gornostay Educational Center took second place in the team rankings, presenting a challenge discussing the influence of various laboratory glassware parameters on reactions.

The winner of the tournament was the team "Carborundum" from MBOU Lyceum No. 130 with the task of dyeing natural materials for clothing in Paleolithic conditions.

The best speakers were Alexandra Shchitova, Azar Neopolus-Kim (Carborundum, MBOU Lyceum No. 130) and Maryam Baiguzina (Charoit, MAOU OTs Gornostay).

The best opponents were Valeriy Lisitsa (Karborundum, MBOU Lyceum No. 130), Nikolay Kravchenko (Vivere est cogitare, SUNC NSU), Alisa Gornshteyn and Mikhail Semchenko (Pyrotechnics, MAOU Gymnasium No. 1).

The best reviewers are Nikolai Kravchenko (Vivere est cogitare, SUNC NSU), Viktor Bukhgeim (Karborundum, MBOU Lyceum No. 130) and Valeriy Lisitsa (Karborundum, MBOU Lyceum No. 130).

Following a long-standing tradition, special nominations were also given to players who distinguished themselves with resourcefulness or funny scientific statements during the game.

Five students from grades 8-10, among the best players of the tournament, received an invitation to the Summer School of the Specialized Scientific Center of NSU.

Speaking about the educational significance of the tournament, Elena Stolyarova noted:

The tournament reveals chemistry to participants as a science that cannot be grasped using books alone. The tournament forces students to formulate hypotheses, conduct experiments, evaluate their results, and defend them to an audience as deeply immersed in the subject matter as the presenter. An important aspect of learning at the tournament is receiving informed and appropriate criticism, which participants must learn to accept, understand, and use for their own scientific and personal growth.

The winners and runners-up (the top three teams) of the Novosibirsk Young Chemists' Tournament are invited to the final round of the All-Russian School Chemistry Tournament (VKhTSh), which will be held in March 2026 at NSU and will bring together the best teams from across Russia. All VKhTSh participants will receive additional points for admission to NSU.

The tournament was held with the support of the Institute of Chemical Biology and Fundamental Medicine SB RAS, the Institute of Chemical Solid State Mechanics SB RAS, the Institute of Organic Chemistry SB RAS, the Institute of Inorganic Chemistry SB RAS, and the companies OOO TD GraSS and OOO NCGI. The tournament organizing committee expresses its gratitude for their assistance in holding the event to the State Autonomous Institution of Additional Education of the Novosibirsk Region "OCRTDIU", Novosibirsk State University, and especially Faculty of Natural Sciences And Specialized Educational and Scientific Center (SESC) of NSU.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

On November 30, the All-Russian Mathematical Dictation, organized by Novosibirsk State University, took place Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics (MMF) with the support of the T-Education project. The event was part of a larger campaign that took place this year at 25 offline locations across the country, as well as online, and attracted over 50,000 participants. Around 150 people registered at the NSU site. Schoolchildren, students, and anyone who loves the exact sciences came to write their papers in person on a frosty Sunday.

The dictation took place in the auditorium of the NSU flow auditorium building, which is part of the second stage of the project. new campus of NSU, being built as part of the national project "Youth and Children." At NSU, as at other venues, 10 winners were selected for scoring the highest number of points based on the assessment results. They were awarded commemorative prizes from T-Education.

Before the dictation began, participants were greeted by T-Education representative Natalia Bogdanova, who noted the scale of the event and the importance of mathematical literacy in everyday life:

"This is a major intellectual event; over 50,000 people registered for platforms across Russia. Why is T-Bank supporting this event? Because mathematics is everywhere. We assess risks and make decisions, test new functionality, and protect our clients from fraud using mathematical tools."

The dictation rules were simple. Participants solve 15 problems of varying difficulty: 10 with short answers and 5 with detailed solutions. No outside assistance is permitted during the dictation. Two hours are allotted for the entire test, and upon completion, everyone receives a certificate.

The organizer of the dictation at NSU was Faculty of Mechanics and Mathematics, who is actively involved in popularizing mathematics. Sergey Bolgarin, a senior lecturer in the programming department at the Faculty of Mathematics and Mathematics, noted the university's long-standing collaboration with T-Bank:

"Of course, this isn't the first project we've run with T-Bank. For example, as part of the Big Mathematical Workshop, T-Bank initiated several projects and sponsored and organized intellectual social events. We're grateful to our partner for the opportunity to participate in the All-Russian Mathematical Dictation. I believe Akademgorodok is an interesting venue for the event, as participants have the opportunity to see the new NSU campus and take a walk in nature. For applicants, this is an opportunity to see the university where they'll be studying."

Nikita Bozhkov, a student and graduate, who participated in the dictation, shared his impressions. Specialized Scientific Center of Novosibirsk State University:

I saw the news about the dictation and decided to give it a try. I wanted to see if I could solve the problems. The most frustrating was the probability problem—I kind of got it right, but then again, I didn't. The graph problems were pleasant: the numbers were easy and pretty. The problem about the perimeters of a triangle and a hexagon and comparing their areas was interesting. It was about as difficult as the Unified State Exam (USE). If you'd taken the USE exam, you could easily solve it in an hour or an hour and a half.

During the break between the dictation and the awards ceremony, the participants were offered a quiz from students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Mathematics of NSU and an interactive exhibition. mathematical festival "This is Mathematics".

This is not the first time NSU has participated in federal educational projects, and the All-Russian Mathematical Dictation marked another step in popularizing the sciences among schoolchildren and students. Despite the cold and the fact that it was a Sunday, the participants had the opportunity to test themselves, refresh their knowledge, and experience the atmosphere of an intellectual community that unites people across the country.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

Two major epee fencing tournaments were held in Novosibirsk, in which three of our students performed brilliantly and won several medals.

At the Siberian Federal District Junior Championships for U21s, Artem Tsaplin (GGF) and Mikhail Trofimov (MMF) took second place as part of the Novosibirsk Region team. Artem won the bronze medal in the individual competition.

And at the All-Russian Masters competition, Oleg Tsyplakov (FF) took 1st place, brilliantly winning the final match with a score of 15:13.

We congratulate our athletes and coach Olesya Onchukova on their successful performance at the district championship and all-Russian competitions, and wish them continued success in their studies and athletics!

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.

Translation. Region: Russian Federation –

Source: Novosibirsk State University –

An important disclaimer is at the bottom of this article.

On November 20, Novosibirsk State University concluded its first "Economic Challenge"—an innovative educational project involving over 20 students from eight faculties. Over the course of two months, the participants did not attend a single lecture, but learned to think economically through dialogue, debate, games, and simulations of real-life situations.

The challenge started on September 25th and was held every week in Startup studios NSU with the support of Laboratories of Economics and Business39 people attended the first meeting, and the 22 most motivated reached the final.

"We view economics not as formulas and graphs, but as a tool for understanding the world, because economics is its foundation. We teach thinking and understanding, not memorization (we don't teach making people smarter :))," notes Dmitry Markov, a lecturer. Faculty of Economics (EF) NSU and head of the Laboratory of Economics and Business.

The format completely abandoned the traditional presentation of the course. From the very start, participants were treated to logic quizzes, numerical puzzles, and problems involving economic concepts. Instead of lectures, nine teams worked in a dialogue and experimentation mode. The seminar participants were first-year students from the Faculty of Economics and Faculty of Information Technology (FIT), who themselves have gone through the process in the Laboratory of Economics and Business from enthusiastic schoolchildren to mentors.

The game-based "production" activity using construction sets left a particularly strong impression: participants created a product, sought out buyers, and worked with fake money—transforming abstract concepts into tangible experiences. After just a few sessions, the students were fluently analyzing financial statements and asking questions like, "How can a company grow with negative equity?" (using Ozon's financial statements as an example).

The project became more than just a learning experience, but a cognitive development environment: participants became more precise in their concepts, more confident in their reasoning, and no longer feared complex topics.

"Today, economic thinking is the same as literacy was 100 years ago. And we're teaching it in a new way. We're very pleased with the results of our new project and the high level of interest and engagement among NSU students! It was a pleasure working with them!" adds Dmitry Markov.

The idea for the project arose spontaneously: during a meeting between representatives of the NSU Startup Studio and the Laboratory of Economics and Business at the NSU Science Picnic on September 1.

"We talked about the future, about students, about what's missing in modern education, and in literally an hour we came up with something that enriched the autumn at NSU: our first economics challenge for all interested students," says Alexey Starostin, director of the NSU Startup Studio.

During the two-month economic challenge, students gained not only new knowledge but also remarkable experience in working with real-world economic problems.

"During the classes, we had time to solve interesting cases and listen to short lectures from Dmitry and the seminarians. I especially liked the interesting approach, which stems from the Austrian school of economics—practice first, theory second. Although it was unusual at first, we eventually got the hang of it. Also, some of the problems were presented in a game format, which made the process more engaging. If you want to sharpen your economic logic, analytical and critical thinking, and make new connections, I definitely recommend participating in the economic challenge," shares Maria Elatintseva, a first-year student at the Faculty of Economics at NSU.

"The first thing I'd like to say to Dmitry for this challenge is a huge thank you and deep gratitude to the entire team of the Economics and Business Laboratory. Such meaningful Thursdays wouldn't have happened if I had missed them all. This challenge helped me better understand how everything works, and it significantly influenced the way I think and make decisions. These two months together were the most interesting and rewarding. I'm also very grateful to my team, which we formed thanks to the challenge. Working with new colleagues from four different faculties at NSU was not only useful but also fun. I'm grateful to everyone for the time spent and the exciting work we did together," says Andrey Schmidt, a first-year student at the NSU Faculty of Information Technologies.

"Learning is light, not learning is darkness." With this motto, I took the economic challenge from the Laboratory of Economics and Business. At first, I thought I'd read a lot about economics and that a simple challenge wouldn't teach me anything, but all doubts were dispelled after the first meeting. A wealth of useful information, knowledge, interactivity, and a practical approach to problems—it all became so engaging that after each meeting, you eagerly await the next one. A big thank you to organizer Dmitry Markov and his team! After this challenge, I gained valuable skills, confidence, and the desire to develop further. — Nikita Sobolev, third-year student Faculty of Physics NSU.

Please note: This information is raw content obtained directly from the source. It represents an accurate account of the source's assertions and does not necessarily reflect the position of MIL-OSI or its clients.